RealClearPolitics - The Future of the World Economy

RealClearPolitics - The Future of the World Economy

"The next crisis could be a dollar crisis," he warns. Foreigners own roughly $23 trillion in U.S. stocks, bonds, real estate and factories; Americans own about $20 trillion in foreign assets. That's the reality of being the world's largest debtor. A loss of confidence could trigger a sell-off of American stocks and bonds that -- given the dollar's role as global currency -- would reverberate around the world.

Forewarned is forearmed - SP

Works and Days » Are You ‘Them!’?

Works and Days » Are You ‘Them!’?

"Until the appearance of Barack Obama on the national scene, I knew of “them” only from an old sci-fi movie in which huge ants (“Them!”) ate people.

But there are new monsters in America, and I am starting to wonder whether I am to be considered among them: those of the uninvolved and uninformed lives, the bar-raisers, the downright mean ones, the never deserving of respect ones, the Vegas junketeers, the Super Bowl jet setters, the tuition stealers, the faux-Christians who do not pay higher taxes, the too much income makers, the tormenters of autistic children, the polluters, the enemies deserving of punishment, the targets to bring a gun against, the faces to get in front of, the limb-loppers, the tonsil pullers, the fat cats, the corporate jet owners, the one-percenters, the stupidly acting, the not paying their fair sharers, the discriminators on the “way you look”, the alligator raisers and moat builders, the vote deniers, the clingers, the typical something persons, the hunters of kids at ice cream parlors, the stereotypers and profilers, the cowards, the lazy and soft, the non-spreaders of money, the not my people people, the Tea party racists, the not been perfect and mistake makers, the disengaged and the dictating, the not the time to profiteers, the ones who did not know when to quit making money, and on and on.

My God, man, how did Barack Obama & Co. conjure up so many demons?"

Read it all.

Keystone Madness

Keystone Madness

"Now, reacting to a congressional deadline to decide, Obama rejected the proposal. But he also suggested that a new application with a modified Nebraska route -- already being negotiated -- might be approved, after the election. So the sop tossed to the environmentalists could be temporary. The cynicism is breathtaking."

Indeed! - SP

13 Politically Incorrect Gun Rules

guns | crime | shooting | The Daily Caller

At the top of the list:

1. Guns have only two enemies rust and politicians.

Dear Andrew Sullivan: Why Focus On Obama's Dumbest Critics? - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

Dear Andrew Sullivan: Why Focus On Obama's Dumbest Critics? - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

"I submit that had Palin or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rice or Jeb Bush or John Bolton or Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney proposed doing even half of those things in 2008, you'd have declared them unfit for the presidency and expressed alarm at the prospect of America doubling down on the excesses of the post-September 11 era. You'd have championed an alternative candidate who avowed that America doesn't have to choose between our values and our safety.

Yet President Obama has done all of the aforementioned things. "

Death by Wealth Tax | Hoover Institution

Death by Wealth Tax | Hoover Institution

One only has to do a cursory study of the French Revolution to understand the truth of this article. If taken to the extremes that the current Administration and others in Congress (i.e most Democrats) would like to take them, not only will this country CONTINUE to suffer but it will become worse than any of us can imagine! - Sp

"Conservatives Remain the Largest Ideological Group in U.S." (And, of Late, the Dumbest) @ AMERICAN DIGEST

"Conservatives Remain the Largest Ideological Group in U.S." (And, of Late, the Dumbest) @ AMERICAN DIGEST

"These people are deeply stupefied and confused. Ideology will do that to you. They seem to think, to actually believe, that this coming election is about only voting if you can vote for a candidate you like. Let me disabuse these kids of this silly notion right away. The election of 2012 ain't a conservative popularity contest. It's a war to, first, last, and always, destroy any possibility of a second term for Barack Hussain Obama.

This is not a "Vote-For" election. This is a "Vote-Against" election. This is not a "Sit-It-Out-And-Pout" election. This is a "Get-Obama-Out" election. That is what it is about and that is all it is about."

If you call yourself a Conservative you need to read and and UNDERSTAND this!! Pure ideology will NOT win this election! We ALL need to unite behind the candidate that is finally chosen and defeat the greatest threat to this country in our generation! - SP

Keystone Blue-Collar Blues

Larry Kudlow at RealClearPolitics:


The payroll-tax-cut debate is not really about the payroll tax, which is a very weak-kneed economic stimulant and a lackluster job creator because of its temporary nature. Without permanent incentives at lower tax rates, these rebates don't do anything for growth and jobs.

Instead, the key to understanding the payroll-tax debate is to grasp President Barack Obama's leftist vision of taxing successful earners (the millionaire surtax) and his obsession with clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels. These are ideological positions. They support the Obama vision of class warfare and his attachment to radical environmentalism.

And the key to understanding this state of affairs is the disposition of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, which Republicans cleverly threw into the payroll-tax debate as the only real job creator.

By siding with the radical greenies and standing against the Keystone pipeline, Obama has turned his back on the most traditional voting bloc in the Democratic Party: blue-collar, hardhat workers.

Manufacturing workers. Construction workers. Truckers. Pipefitters. Plumbers. The Keystone opposition coming out of the White House is completely alienating all these people, the folks who work with their hands. And it's these workers who have been decimated in the recession far more than any other group in the economy.

David Barnett, the head of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, told me on CNBC that unemployment is currently running at 20 percent to 25 percent in this blue-collar sector. He has repeatedly lobbied the White House to allow the Keystone pipeline to go through, and he notes high environmental standards in the work his men do. And yet even now, three years after the initial Keystone reviews began, the issue is still not resolved.

How can you have a jobs bill without putting blue-collar workers back to work? Answer: stubborn ideological insistence.

The Teamsters support the Keystone. So does the AFL-CIO. So do the machinists. And along with the plumbers and pipefitters, so does the Laborers' International Union of North America.

And we're not just talking about the 20,000 jobs that would accrue directly from the pipeline, but the secondary and tertiary jobs from a long supply chain that total well over 100,000.

As of this writing, the White House may dump the millionaire surtax. But that's not much of a concession, since it never would have passed anyway. Republicans are adamant. It's a nonstarter in the House, and probably the Senate, too. Meanwhile, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell told me the Keystone pipeline is the key to the payroll-tax-cut deal.

Both practically and symbolically, Obama's obsessive stance against the pipeline rips a huge split in the Democratic Party, and in the country as a whole. His manic support of clean energy -- just think Solyndra -- has blocked out any rational evaluation of the ongoing importance of oil and natural gas -- including the oil-and-gas-shale fracking revolution that has become a huge jobs creator in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and elsewhere.

The Obama administration recently shut down the Utica shale field in Ohio because of an Agriculture Department objection. Two hundred thousand jobs are at stake. A field in Wyoming may be shut down. New York state desperately needs jobs and growth, but is wavering because of EPA actions elsewhere.
And with the Keystone ruling delay now extending for another year, the Keystone folks might give the whole project up in the U.S., in favor of a Pacific Ocean pipeline in Canada that will sell oil to the Chinese.
While the U.S. dithers, the Canadians are taking action. As a shot across the unbalanced environmental bow, the Canadian government is opting out of the Kyoto global-warming treaty. As energy analyst Daniel Yergin writes, while the unstable Persian Gulf countries represent 16 percent of U.S. oil imports, Canada represents 25 percent.

Yergin also writes that by the beginning of the next decade, Canadian oil sands could double production to 3 million barrels per day. That means an even higher share of U.S. imports coming from our friendly neighbor and largest trading partner.

So in addition to being an economic-stability issue, this becomes an energy-independence issue and even a national-security issue.

Obama's decisions on the pipeline and other new energy breakthroughs are inimical to U.S. interests. They also are hostile to Democratic Party hardhats who may desert the president in droves come next November.

On top of all that, what may be America's leading new source of job creation will be stifled.

The Hot Race Nobody Is Talking About

A battle for the soul of the Republican party?

Andrew Stiles at NRO:

The Iowa caucuses are still weeks away, but those in search of a hotly contested GOP election need look no farther than the Capitol this Tuesday, when Senate Republicans will select a new vice chairman of the GOP conference.

What may seem like a relatively mundane affair (vice chairman of the conference is the lowest-ranking leadership position), some are billing it as a monumental struggle for the very soul of the Republican party. RedState founder Erick Erickson, for example, is touting the race, which pits Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) against Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), as “the most important fight for conservatives in America.”

Erickson and other conservative activists are aggressively backing the freshman Johnson over Blunt, who is also a first-term senator, but whose 14 years serving in the House of Representatives (including a brief stint in leadership) classify him, in their eyes, as a member of “the GOP establishment.”

“I like both senators tremendously,” Erickson writes, “but for conservatives, Ron Johnson is a no-brainer here. Senator Blunt’s thinking is the same thinking that has plagued Senate Republicans for a decade now — the same old ideas and same old strategies.” Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica, concurs. Johnson, he argues, is “a champion for the principles of conservatives,” whereas Blunt is a “creature of the establishment.”

Johnson supporters are quick to point out the senator’s conservative credentials via the Heritage Action for America congressional scorecard: He enjoys a 91 percent rating, compared with Blunt’s 64 percent. (Heritage Action is a notoriously tough grader; Paul Ryan rates just 78 percent.)

That said, conservative support for Johnson appears to derive less from his voting record than from his status as a true political outsider — in other words, his relative lack of political experience. Johnson, who has never held political office until now, touted his extensive private-sector experience — 31 years as an accountant and plastics manufacturer — to great effect in his campaign to oust incumbent senator Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) in 2010. In doing so, he was able to win broad support within the GOP, from both “the establishment” (the National Republican Senatorial Committee) and the Tea Party, in year that saw a fair amount of infighting between the two factions.

“I thought it was important for people from the private sector, citizen legislators, to bring that valuable perspective to Congress,” Johnson tells National Review Online. “I’ve exported products. I’ve actually created jobs. And now that I’m here, I think I can bring that valuable perspective to the leadership in the Senate.”

The case for Blunt, meanwhile, emphasizes his congressional experience. During his time in the House, which included brief tenures as majority whip and majority leader, Blunt developed close working relationships with Reps. John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Eric Cantor (R., Va.). Blunt’s supporters argue that his ties to the current House leadership would be a valuable asset when it comes to the relationship between Republican leaders in the upper and lower chambers, particularly in the (likely) event that the GOP wins control of the Senate in 2012. “Since when did experience become a negative attribute?” asks one Senate aide. “You know, it actually tends to come in handy around here.”

Blunt’s supporters also note that he would bring his own unique perspective to the Senate leadership. If elected, he would be the first chairman of the Values Action Team — a congressional coalition focusing primarily on social issues — chosen for a leadership post.

“Each one has a pretty good argument to make,” observes another Republican aide. “I’d say it’s still up in the air at this point.” Indeed, most observers predict a close vote. However, another critical factor driving support for Johnson among conservatives is the perception that “the establishment” has rigged the race in Blunt’s favor. Some suspect that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is actively whipping the vote against Johnson, a charge the leader’s office strongly denies.

The vice chairman’s slot initially became available in September when the current conference chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), announced his intention to step down from the No. 3 leadership position. Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), who holds the No. 4 spot as policy chairman, is running unopposed to replace him. Current vice chairman Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) is expected to succeed Thune.

Johnson announced his intention to run for vice chairman just hours after Alexander’s announcement. Blunt, meanwhile, quietly began seeking support for a run of his own, but made his candidacy public only last week, after Alexander set a date for the election.

Erickson cried foul, writing: “[The election] was going to happen in January. But conservatives started gaining momentum. Naturally, Mitch McConnell had to go try to pull the rug out from under conservatives.” Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), a tea-party favorite who is backing Johnson, said he was “kind of surprised” to learn that the election was being moved up.

One Senate source contends that the decision to move the date up was made at McConnell’s bidding in a deliberate effort to help Blunt, while others insist that the vote was never officially scheduled for January and that it was Alexander who made the call. The purpose of holding the election now, they say, is to give the new leadership team sufficient time to be able to hit the ground running when Congress returns after the holiday recess.

In addition to DeMint’s, Johnson has received endorsements from Sens. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), and Bob Corker (R. Tenn.), as well as from fellow freshman senators Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.), Mike Lee (R., Utah), and Rand Paul (R., Ky.). The endorsements from Rubio, Lee, and Paul are noteworthy because those freshman lawmakers embody the tea-party/establishment rift that characterized a number of high-profile races in 2010: Each of them defeated an establishment-backed candidate to win the Republican nomination. “There’s a broad spectrum in the conference between any party,” Johnson says. “I may be on one side, others may be on the other side.”

Having only recently announced his bid, Blunt remains mum with respect to the endorsements he has received thus far. His supporters expect a close race and note that the outcomes of such elections, which are decided by secret ballot at the weekly GOP lunch meetings, are often difficult to predict, as some senators have a habit of pledging support to multiple candidates in the run-up to a vote. Johnson acknowledges the same. “I like my chances,” he says, “but it could go either way.”

The two senators agree that, however the election turns out, 2012 will be a critical year for Senate Republicans — and for the future of the country. “America is facing a critical moment, when we’re going to decide who we’re going to be as a nation,” Blunt said in a statement announcing his bid.

“We don’t have much time,” Johnson says. “It’s absolutely crucial that the 2012 election is actually a mandate election, and we’re not just running to get over the finish line.”

Whoever gets the nod on Tuesday will certainly have his work cut out for him.